1. Field
The present invention relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for determining a range and direction for a transmitting component from a receiving component in a communication system at a predetermined level of granularity.
2. Background
Communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, packet data, and so on. These systems can be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users simultaneously by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, user equipment (UE) or mobile devices in these systems communicate to other UE or mobile devices in the system by first communicating to a base station. This base station is in turn communicatively coupled through a network to a base station (either the same or a different base station) which transmits a signal that can be received by another UE or mobile device to complete one leg of a communications circuit. A return leg can be similarly established through the base station and network. Conventionally, communications systems can incorporate the transmission of UE or mobile device location information into the transmitted signals. For example, GPS location information can be included allowing for identification of the transmitting UE or mobile device based on the communicated GPS information.
These conventional systems generally do not communicate directly between UE or mobile devices, e.g., without the use of the base station or corresponding network. Further, these conventional systems typically rely specifically on relatively fine grained affirmative location information being transmitted by devices through the base station and network to the receiving device. This can require costly equipment and circuitry to analyze the context of a UE or mobile device to deduce the location of said UE or mobile device such that it can then be encoded and transmitted over the conventional communications system to the receiving UE or mobile device (e.g., through base station and cell networks). These systems further congest communication networks by adding this fine grain location information to the network traffic. These systems do little for the average mobile device user who can desire to locate another mobile device user in a more direct and efficient manner.